Clark Park was voted best park in the city in 2017 and Friends of Clark Park are here to be advocates for the park and all those that use it. Please take time this Tuesday as part of #GivingTuesday to help us ensure we have the funds we need to support the park. Your funds will help us support two key initiatives this upcoming season:

We are looking to improve trash collection in the park. We know it has been an issue and are looking to hire a private vendor in the peak season to supplement the Parks & Recreation team.

We are also looking at a number of new garden management programs this spring including leveraging outside vendors and implementing a program simmilar to the Woodlands Grave Garden program where idividuals can tend to specific plots.

Initiatives like these help make Clark Park better, but also take funds to make a reality. To donate please click here and please take the time to also ensure your membership is up to date here.

Saturday, November 11 – 11:00 am – at the Gettysburg Stone in Clark Park, near 44th and Baltimore Ave.

Please join the Friends of Clark Park, students of the HMS School and the Boy Scouts in honoring all those who have served in the Armed Forces. Featured will be Temple Professor Anthony “Andy” Waskie, a historian who re-enacts the deeds of General George G. Meade. All are welcome.

Are you a veteran? If so, we would like to recognize and honor you. Please email your name and phone number to frbyers@aol.com.

A big thank you for everyone who has signed up to help with cleanup in Clark Park this coming Saturday. We plan to start at 9:30 AM at 45th and Kingsessing. There is limited street parking near Clark Park, but the site is readily accessible from the SEPTA trolley lines. For Route 34, get off at 45th and Baltimore and walk south two blocks to Kingsessing. For Route 13, got off at 45th and Chester and walk south one block. For Route 11 or Route 36, get off at 45th and Woodland and walk north one block to Kingsessing. When you arrive you should sign in and fill out a waiver form. Coffee, donuts, and water will be available while we work. We will finish between noon and 1 PM.

Lisa McDonald Hanes, Frank Chance, and other Friends of Clark Park board members will meet you and lead groups to perform various cleanup tasks in the park. These tasks will range from raking leaves and general trash pickup to changing out full trash bags for empty ones. We normally rake the leaves into rings around our trees, a system we call mulching in place, which keeps the nutrients from the leaves in the park where they grew. Other volunteers will sweep the walks, police the area for trash, and generally prepare Clark Park

Remember to dress appropriately. The weather forecast looks pretty good, with partly cloudy skies and a high in the low 60’s, but you might want to dress in layers because we will be working hard enough to warm up a bit. Also be prepared for a potentially dirty work. We will provide work gloves and tools, but if you have a favorite rake or other cleaning tool feel free to bring it along.

Rebuild Philly is a $500 million program to revitalize neighborhood parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, and libraries across the city. Rebuild focuses on promoting equity and fairness across Philadelphia. Most of Rebuild’s community investment will go to distressed or struggling neighborhoods where concentrated poverty, elevated crime rates, and heightened health risks are impacting the lives of local residents. Where possible, Rebuild will also look to invest in neighborhoods that may be growing and present opportunities to spur additional economic growth. These are neighborhoods where Rebuild projects can attract even more investment to serve and stabilize the community.

This upcoming Wednesday, 11/1/17 there will be a public meeting of the Rebuild Oversight Board at the Kingsessing Rec Center starting at 6PM. The Rebuild Oversight Board is a public forum to review Rebuild’s progress and make recommendations for the program.

Let’s show Clark Park some love! Bring your family & friends to make our park beautiful and clean for everyone to enjoy. We will do general clean up in Clark Park and rake leaves into mulch-in-place piles around our park trees. We alsoplan to distribute mulch in the park and weed and prune our gardens around the park perimeter.

When: November 4 @ 9:30 am – 1:00 pm

Where: The shed at 45th & Kingsessing

Come join us for Bark in the Park this Saturday October 7th at 2PM at the Clark Park Bowl. There will be great events for dog lovers of all sorts including more than 25 contests from the tallest dog, to the curliest tail, to the fastest runner. Win some great doggie goodies. You can also meet the vet as Dr. David Littlejohn will be there. It will be a great time for you and your four legged friends and we hope to see you there.

Registration is now underway for the Fall season of Clark Park Youth Soccer, enjoyed by kids and their families for more than 20 years! Our family-friendly program for children ages 5-11 kicks off on Saturday, September 23rd.

Information about the program, costs, and registration are available on our Youth Soccer page. Sign up now — don’t miss out!

(And of course, we’re looking for volunteer coaches — if you enjoy working with kids, like to play soccer, and would love to spend your Saturdays at Clark Park, you’re the person we need! Email clarkparksoccer@yahoo.com for details.)

Over the past few weeks we have noticed and heard from the Clark Park community about some of the trash collection issues around the park. We wanted to reach and ensure that the users of Clark Park know that the Friends of Clark Park are aware of the issue and have been working closely with the city to try to rectify the situation.

Last night the Friends of Clark Park board held our regular monthly meeting. In addition to board members, Patty-Pat Koslowski, the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (PP&R) Stewardship Coordinator attended, and we spent over an hour with her talking about trash, staffing, events, and other problems in Clark Park. She proved (as she often does) to be not only a font of information but also to have good insights into our issues.

While two SMA (Seasonal Maintenance Associate) positions were assigned to Clark Park, one of the two quit earlier in the summer. Our remaining SMA is working Monday through Friday and a weekend replacement is being sought, but the process is a bit difficult including three background checks required by city and state regulations. In the meantime trash has been a bit of a problem, but a PP&R crew will begin Tuesday, August 22 to make extra cleanup efforts. In short, the trash issues have been reported to PP&R and we are continuing to with PP&R leadership to find a solution; please be patient.

We also discussed responses to numerous other issues ongoing in the park including the growing homeless community and influx of large events. We have notified Project H.O.M.E. (a homeless support group) about the issue and are expecting quick resolution. We will continue to work with local organizations to make the park experience the best possible and please continue to let us know any issues you may have.